Decreased demand for Levi Strauss & Co.’s SecondHand re-commerce platform accompanied slight reductions in carbon emissions last year, according to the denim company’s latest annual sustainability report.
Published last month, the 27-page document detailed LS&Co.’s progress on the updated slate of “people- and planet-first” goals it established a year ago. In some cases, the company introduced new targets and guidelines, including around biodiversity and circularity.
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“We know we have a ways to go, but I’m confident that we’re moving in the right direction,” CEO Chip Bergh said in a letter at the beginning of the report. “And we will keep pursuing impactful innovation, upholding our global standards of conduct, working with established partners and seeking out new collaborations to help us meet our sustainability ambitions.”
Since 2016, the company’s baseline year, LS&Co. has reduced supply chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 23 percent from 2.73 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to 2.11 million metric tons of CO2e in the fiscal year ended Nov. 27. The total represented only a slight decrease from the prior year when its suppliers emitted 2.13 million metric tons of CO2e.
LS&Co. previously set a goal of reducing its supply chain emissions by 40 percent to 1.64 million metric tons of CO2e by 2025. The report noted that the company is working with “key” suppliers—a subset that is responsible for more than 80 percent of its global product units—to ensure they too are targeting a 40 percent reduction against 2016 levels.
The company has set a longer-term goal of reaching net-zero emissions no later than 2050, in line with the goal world leaders set with the Paris Agreement. As a “first step,” it has begun the net-zero goal-setting process with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). This includes a climate scenario analysis and identifying decarbonization pathways. It anticipates submitting its plan to the SBTi for official validation this year.
The report noted that its 2025 supply chain emissions target will likely change this year “to align with the SBTi Net-Zero Standard.” The revised goal and any changes in timeline would be shared next year.
LS&Co. also offered an update on its progress reducing its own internal GHG emissions—a small fraction of its total carbon footprint. Since 2016, it lowered emissions associated with company-operated facilities by 71 percent to 14,674 metric tons of CO2e. The company’s goal is to reduce its emissions to 4,995 metric tons of CO2e by 2025—a 90 percent absolute reduction compared to 2016.
The company reported continued progress transitioning to renewables, with renewable electricity consumption at its company-operated facilities accounting for 90 percent of the total electricity used last year, up from 85 percent in 2021 and 76 percent in 2020. It aims to reach 100 percent by 2025.
Last year, LS&Co. set itself the goal of introducing or increasing in key markets resale and upcycling initiatives that extend the life of its products by 2025. Though it continued to invest in such programs and plans to expand them in the future, data from Levi’s SecondHand program showed the number of U.S. consumers purchasing previously owned items decreased from 10,000 in 2021 to 9,000 last year. The number of units resold also decreased, from 14,000 to 13,000, while the number of clothing items “reclaimed or extended” dropped from 28,000 to 18,000.
LS&Co. intends to develop a comprehensive plan by 2026 “to make the company circular ready.” Since working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular Framework, it has come up with “overarching parameters” for this plan centered on products “that can be used more, are made to be made again and are made from safe and recycled or renewable inputs.” Last year, it designed and produced 47,000 such units.
Now, it said, it is working on identifying what it can change in its operations and production systems and how to address wider barriers to a circular fashion economy—including a lack of regulation as well as underdeveloped collection, sorting and recycling technologies.
As such, LS&Co. said, the company’s circularity plan will include actions to accelerate in four areas: designing durable, high-quality clothing; providing more options to extend the life of products; eliminating hazardous chemicals and increasing the use of renewable fibers; and “partnering for scale” with other brands through Fashion for Good.
LS&Co. also offered an update on how it intends to achieve its goal of preventing and reducing its impact on biodiversity. After working with third parties, it came up with three specific targets. By 2025, it aims to reach zero deforestation across high-risk materials. By 2030, it intends to invest in at least three projects in high water-stressed basins that reduce freshwater withdrawal and nutrient load pressures in its supply chain. Also by 2030, it is aiming to protect and restore 30 percent of its raw material footprint in “high biodiversity significant regions.”
The report offered an update on the company’s previously established goal of reducing freshwater use in manufacturing by 50 percent in areas of high water stress by 2025, compared against 2018. In 2021, the most recent year for which it has data, freshwater use was down just 14 percent. This represented a reversal from the previous year, when use was down 22 percent from 2018. LS&Co. attributed the regression to increased levels of production volume following Covid-related supply chain disruptions.
